Beautiful Books #1: Introduce Your Novel | Thursday Ramblings

Hello bookworms! I hope you are enjoying you Thursday! Today, for this week’s Thursday Ramblings, I am bringing to you a special post, where I introduce my novel, by linking up with a special link up called Beautiful Books!

While I am not officially participating in NaNoWriMo, I am definitely in the process of writing a novel! And I am riding the NaNoWriMo writing wave to do so! And also, I want to let you all know about my current novel-in-progress, to be perfectly honest.

If you want to know more,click hereto go to Cait’s post where she explains everything about this!

Questions:

How did you come up with the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea?

During one of my many daydreams in the shower, pondering about life and my next writing project, the idea for my current novel popped up. It started with one idea, of an outcast with a sense of revenge who accidentally does something that gets her caught up in a complex and dangerous magical conflict. From there, my mind began to run wild!

Why are you excited to write this novel?

I can think of only one way to do this, so I am going to give you a list of reasons why I am excited about writing this novel:

There is going to be MAGIC. LOTS OF MAGIC!

ELVES! There will definitely be elves in this novel.

Assassins! (because who the heck DOESN’T love assassins?)

A character with a shape-shifting ability

A very morally grey conflict… (is there a clear sign of what is good and evil? I don’t know… is there? *wink*)

An epic adventure

Mystical, magical black orbs

AN ARMY OF THE DEAD. YES I AM PLANNING THIS.

(Hopefully) some epic battle scenes!

What is your novel about, and what is the title?

Okay, so this is a little awkward… I have no idea what the title of my novel should be! So I am just calling it my “work-in-progress” for now! As for the story, let me give you a run-down.

My novel is a fantasy/adventure, about a nineteen-year-old female Dark Elf named Lina, who has a troubled past, and is an outcast in the realm of Eloria and the last of her kind. Disguised as someone else, she lives by selling meat, stealing food and stirring up the royal guards by getting herself arrested and escaping the next day. Unfortunately, she steals an invaluable orb from a witch, and must get it back to prevent a curse from being put upon her. The only problem is, she’s handed it right into the hands of the people who she despises the most, and she isn’t the only one who wants to get their hands on it.

(That, was indeed a horrible summary, I apologize)

Sum up your characters in one word each. (Feel free to add pictures!)

Lina: snarky

Slade: ambiguous

I’ve only got two proper characters so far, but I promise, there are so many more to come!

Which character(s) do you think will be your favourite to write? Tell us about them!

I am very excited to jump into Lina’s character and explore her in depth, with everything from her past, up to her current personality. However, I think Slade is the character I am most looking forward to, because he’s an assassin who is quite mysterious and his intentions are not very clear. I am already loving his personality!

What is your protagonist’s goal, and what stands in the way?

Lina is the protagonist of my novel, and initially, her goal is to get back the orb she stole and sold, to prevent a curse being set upon her by a witch. What stands in her way is a cunning assassin, and two powerful sides fighting for what she wants. However, one of her biggest motivations is revenge for the things done to her in the past.

Where is your novel set? (Show us pictures if you have them!)

My novel is set in the fantasy world of Eloria, a realm of vast open lands, sandy deserts, snowy mountains and thick forests. To the north, lies the Highlands of the Elves, known as Milerseia where the High Elves live, their land bordered by thick, enchanted forest. To the north-east, lies the Black Plains, a vast stretch of desert land, known for housing the home of the greatest assassins in the realm. And to the south lies the Elorian Empire, which was once known as the land of the Dark Elves but was taken over by overseas settlers a few decades before the present day of the novel.

What is the most important relationship your character has?

Lina’s most important relationship in the novel, besides her relationship with her parents (who are already dead, I might add), would be with Slade, the assassin. He and Lina’s relationship is important as while they do not trust each other one bit, their paths are inexplicably linked through circumstance and event, as their goals and tasks intermingle, causing them to both question their motives throughout the novel.

How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?

Lina gets challenged many times throughout the novel, and by the end, I’m not really sure how she will change. But perhaps I will get a clearer sense of that once I know more about this story myself, as I write it!

What themes are in your book? How do you want your readers to feel when the story is over?

I don’t know if I have any particular themes! Oh oh, revenge is definitely a theme in this novel. Another is possibly, identity.

BONUS! Tell us your 3 best pieces of advice for others trying to write a book in a month.

Honestly? I can’t think of anything because there is no way I could write a novel in a month!

So there was a brief introduction to my upcoming novel! Honestly, I am a pantser type of writer, so I write without planning most of the time. And I am currently in the process of getting back into my novel after being away from it for so long (a bit more than a month). So forgive me if this sounds very confusing for vague. I hope you enjoyed me rambling about my novel!

OMG!!! This sounds so great, fabulous, exciting and all of those words. I love the concept of revenge. I want to read. Please do me a favour and write is as soon as possible. I love elves and the very impression of world building. Focus a lot in there, for your first book (if it is going to be series). Good Luck Jose! For your exams. I think I might introduce the concept of my book, as soon as I am done 3/4th of it. Plot I mean 😉
Have A Great Day! 🙂

Oh I’m so happy you’re excited about it!
Yes I’ll definitely start writing ASAP! I think it’s gonna be a series but I’m not sure yet, I’ll see how the first book turns out!
Thank you Warisha, for stopping by and for all the kind words! 💕

Sounds interesting! Can’t wait to see how it ends up if we do 🙂 I tried writing and realized it’s definitely not for me. I’m a reader through and through. But I love listening and finding out about other people’s great idea

aHHH THIS WAS GREAT. OMG I LOVE THE SOUND OF THIS. Dark elves and dead armies and assassins??!!?? THIS IS MY KINDA BOOK. 😀 Also it is really incredibly exciting to write books where the morals are all swimming the grey areas and there are shifty people trotting around with unclear intentions. Omg, I love assassins. I wrote an assassin brotherly book this year and IT WAS SO FUN. But army of the dead?!? YES PLEASE. Magic and shape-shifting and…omg, I need go sit and calm down now because I’m way too excited. xD
Thanks for joining in the linkup and OBVIOUSLY I LOVED READING THIS POST. ❤

YAYAYAYAY CAIT I’M SO GLAD YOURE EXCITED ABOUT IT! Yes this story has been playing on my mind for a long time, it’s way overdue to write it!
I’m so excited!!! I’ll definitely share some chapters with you, the ones that are already complete 😉

God, Josie. What is up with you? No kidding. How dare you do something like this introducing your WIP and NOT expect me to die because of the wait if you ever publish it?! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO WAIT?! I will not wait. I cannot wait. I need to read the whole thing right now. RIGHT NOW. I forbid you to do another post like this because you are making me way too strongly attached to your WIP and then you’re making me wait?! This is impossible and improbable. You are using all sorts of voodoo stuff to keep me in control from eating the sun because of the direness of this wait for your novel. I am dying inside *dramatically puts hand to forehead* DYING I TELL YOU.

VERY VERY VERY AWESOME POST, AWESOME BECAUSE YOU DID A SWELL JOB ON MAKING ME FEEL WAY TOO JUMPY AND ALSO MAKING ME NEVER BE ABLE TO WAIT A SECOND LONGER FOR ANY THING YOU WRITE.

VEDA YOU AMAZING, FABULOUS HUMAN BEING! Ah you are such a sweetheart and I love you! 💕
Your comment makes me so happy! I’ll definitely share some of the completed chapters with you, so that you don’t completely die from anticipation 😉😘

Good. Or else there is a high possibility I will write down “JOSIE THE BOOKWORM CAUSED ME TO DIE BECAUSE SHE DID NOT PUBLISH HER BOOK ALREADY SO I DIED OF THE WAIT” on an index card and stick it on my tombstone.

AWWWW *gushes* I LOVE YOU TOO! You are awesome at writing and you are an amazing friend. I’m so thankful to have met you!! You always make me smile! Ah, and it’s Thanksgiving. *lots of hugs through the screen*

I really love the idea you had. I’m reading way more contemporary stories than fantasy, and the simple fact that you’re building a whole world -that seems fantastic, by the way- amazes me. It must be a lot of work, but it’s also letting your imagination go wild, and wild!! And that’s what’s so amazing. I’m really curious about your story, it’s definitely something I’d love to check out! Good luck for the writing, Josie, you’re the best! 🙂
How much have you written, so far ? 🙂

Thank you! Yes it’s tough, and there are going to be many loose ends after my first draft but I’m always coming up with new concepts and stories that make up my new world which keeps me invigorated and excited to write it! 😄
Thank you so much! I’ve written about three chapters, I think I’ve got about 6,000 words or more at the moment and I’m also writing a backstory for Lina, but that’s only for my eyes at the moment 😉

This sounds wonderful! I would love to read an excerpt. I love that you’re creating a whole world. That must be so hard, to not even have the geography known to you beforehand. Good luck with your writing!

I see someone has mentioned this already, but I totally want to see a map too. There must be some photoshop-savvy blogger about who could help 🙂

It is quite hard! Sometimes it’s hard to envision the world as I’m writing it. But it’s like a whole new adventure so I love it!
If there is any blogger interested in making a map, they can feel free to contact me! 😊

This sure is promising! I’m excited for the lead characters bc they reflect some of my favorite books in the world (Celaena being the assassin and Tessa being the shapeshifter). Hmmm I’m thinking there might be a need for an illustrated map (as in Game of Thrones and Throne of Glass) of the places when you publish this. Good luck! 🙂

Celaena and Tessa are my two favourite fictional females ever 😍 I would be lying if I said Lina wasn’t slightly influenced by their characters. However I have always wanted to write about a shapeshifter.
I definitely need an illustrated map. These are the times I wish I could draw 😭

Slade… Slade… Slade… I’m calling dibs!
I love that he’s an assassin. I love his name. I love that he brings the air of mystery.
I wonder what Lina’s real name is? Rosalina? Elina? Celina? Or just Lina?

I am loving the name Slade, for some reason. I think it fits his role as an assassin. Your novel sounds like an exciting adventure, I’m already interested with Eloria. I hope you get a lot of writing done and I hope you put up a sampler of it too because I’d love to read it 😀

well done! I have to admit that it slipped my mind to read the last draft of the first chapter that you sent me, but I plan on rectifying that very very soon 😀
You seem to have a clear image of the world and what you want to make happen in the novel 😉 I wish you all the luck in the writing process and I anxiously await to read the results 😀

Thank you! Yay! I’m really excited to be back onto writing it again. I’ll have lots of free time from now on to work on it!
Yes I have been thinking about the world longer than I have been thinking about the actual storyline to be honest 😂